Fire up Amari Cooper with confidence

THE GOOD – Dion Lewis again proved start-worthy, finishing as the RB15 in standard leagues despite three touchdowns from teammate LeGarrette Blount. … Matt Jones got the start over Alfred Morris and nearly doubled up the veteran in touches, but the rookie finished outside of the top-50 fantasy RBs, justifying the outlook to temper expectations as a risky RB start in a tough divisional matchup. … C.J. Anderson was picked to finish outside the top-20 RBs, and he also finished outside of the top 50.

THE BAD – Allen Robinson (WR39) did little with his team-high nine targets and did not warrant a starting spot, nor did Russell Wilson (QB19) match his lofty prediction as he was pressured on more than half of his dropbacks and took four more sacks.

Looking ahead to Week 4, we are a quarter of the way through the fantasy regular season, and so the time has come to put more stock in trends and the data sample size we have to this point. Let’s delve into five key trends to watch for in Week 4:

Oakland’s Fantasy Factory

Not since the Super Bowl days of Rich Gannon, Jerry Rice, Tim Brown and Charlie Garner have we seen this much fantasy relevance on an Oakland Raiders offense. And there is plenty of evidence to believe it will continue, especially when you consider that no trio of teammates in NFL history had more yards at their respective positions in a game as Derek Carr, Latavius Murry and Amari Cooper posted against Cleveland in Week 3. So, let’s peel back the names and break down the production through three weeks.

Mike is a member of the FSWA and a staff writer for PFF Fantasy who focuses on both redraft and dynasty content, having spent several years covering FBS for a number of publications. Follow @Castiglione_NFL

Ridgeback

Well since Fitz numbers are so insane through 3 weeks it doesn’t really matter which corner you would plug him up against in that model. He would have a huge advantage against Revis according to the model. While Fitz is going to have a great season this year and I’ll still be having my fair share of him this week I highly doubt there aren’t more than 3 better matchups then that one.

diesel08

Great point – not sure how well an average of F/R between receiver and defender through 3 weeks captures ‘matchup’. I’m thinking of putting a bit more stock in the ‘Grade’ column myself. You can see there is actually a pretty strong correlation between ‘F/R’ and ‘Grade’.